Sushma Swaraj says India won’t take sides as Gaza toll rises to 518

Government today refused to take sides over the Gaza conflict and said Israel and Palestine should accept Egypt's offer of peace talks.

PTI | Updated: Jul 21, 2014, 22:57 IST

A Palestinian man makes his way on the rubble of an apartment building, destroyed by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City.

NEW DELHI/GAZA/JERUSALEM: Asserting that India's policy on Palestine issue remains unchanged, government on Monday refused to take sides over the Gaza conflict as it said Israel and Palestine should have peace talks and forestalled a resolution in Rajya Sabha which was demanded by the opposition.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said the House should not be divided but send out a joint message that wherever there is violence, it is condemnable and both Israel and Palestine should accept Egypt's offer of peace talks.

She was replying to a short-duration debate on Gaza situation during which opposition condemned the violence in Gaza, pressed for adoption of a resolution, demanded suspension of all military purchases from Israel and wanted India to raise the issue at the UN.

Rejecting opposition demand for a resolution, deputy chairman PJ Kurien said the Rule 176 under which the discussion took place does not provide for a resolution or motion of any kind.

Besides, he pointed out that the government was not agreeable to a resolution or motion of any kind and there was no consensus, because of which he could do nothing.

Almost the entire opposition, which had stalled the House last week by pressing for a discussion on the issue, was unhappy as none of the demands were met and staged a walkout.

BJD, however, did not join them.

Earlier, responding point-by-point to the issues raised by the opposition members during the debate, Swaraj asserted that the country's policy on Palestine remains unchanged and attacked the opposition for casting aspersions on the Modi government.

A man sits next to the bodies of Palestinians from Abu Jama'e family, who medics said were killed in an Israeli air strike that destroyed their house, during their funeral at a mosque in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. (Reuters photo)

"There is absolutely no change in India's policy towards Palestine, which is that we fully support the Palestinian cause while maintaining good relations with Israel," the minister said and emphasised that this policy has been in vogue through various governments including those of Congress, BJP and coalition governments headed by Deve Gowda and IK Gujral. She also rejected the demand by some opposition parties that India should stop purchase of military equipment from Israel.

Sushma Swaraj rejected the contention of leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad that India had been late in reacting to the Gaza violence as the debate was not allowed to take place last week.

She said while the debate had been listed in the House on July 16, India had already given its reaction on the matter a day earlier in the joint statement of BRICS attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Brazilian city of Fortaleza.

Noting that relations with Israel had improved over the last few years while India maintained strong support to the Palestine cause, Sushma said "There is no change in this policy in Narendra Modi's government nor during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time. NDA was for 5 years while Congress for 10 years. Even the coalition governments followed the same policy."

Taking the attack to the Congress camp, Sushma Swaraj said India had established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992 during the PV Narasimha Rao government. While deftly opposing any resolution as demanded by the opposition, she said "You are asking for a resolution. But does the rule under which the discussion is taking place provide for any resolution? It does not provide for any resolution, motion or voting."

To justify her contention, she cited a ruling by chairman Hamid Ansari. Kurien also went by her contention.

"So what should be done? There should be one joint message that wherever there is violence, it should be condemned. We should tell both the nations — Israel and Palestine — to accept Egypt's offer of talks. The same message should go from this House, the government and the entire nation," the minister said.

Fierce fighting in Gaza, toll rises to 518

Fierce fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas continued unabated on Monday with both sides showing no signs of backing down in the two-week long conflict that has killed 518 Palestinians, even as the UN security council called for an "immediate ceasefire".

A day after Israel's deadliest attack on Gaza in recent years killed about 150 people, more than 10 Hamas militants were shot dead on Monday after infiltrating southern Israel.

Two Hamas cells tried to infiltrate Israel to carry out an attack through tunnels from northern Gaza but they were identified by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and an aircraft was dispatched to intercept them, the army said.

"The first cell was struck from the air, and ten of its members were killed", it said.

Israeli cannon fires shells from an artillery unit near the Israeli border with Gaza.

The second squad tried to approach Niram kibbutz close to Gaza's northeastern tip, where they were engaged in a fierce gun battle with soldiers in which they also fired anti-tank weapons.

Several soldiers were wounded, the army said, without giving further details.

The deaths across Gaza on Monday pushed the Palestinian toll to at least 518 in 14 days of fighting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip despite the death of his 18 soldiers.

Netanyahu told reporters on Sunday night that the death of the soldiers is "painful and difficult", but Israel will continue its Operation Protective Edge with full speed ahead.

At least 20 bodies were found near the city of Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike and two people were pulled alive from the rubble, a health official said, adding that over 3,100 Palestinians have been injured so far.

Four Indian tailors working in Gaza for the last two years were evacuated yesterday unharmed with the help of the Representative Office of India (ROI) in Ramallah, West Bank.

Pushkar Sharma, an Indian-American representative of the UN Access coordination office in Gaza, said the Indians, along with a few other foreign nationals, crossed over through the Erez crossing around noon before the two-hour humanitarian ceasefire brokered by the Red Cross began.

Some more Indians, married to Palestinians or working at Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charities, have decided not to leave the coastal strip because of personal or moral reasons.

Meanwhile, the UN security council held urgent talks on the conflict late last night, expressing "serious concern" about the rising death toll and demanding "an immediate cessation of hostilities."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Qatar to end the escalating conflict that has also displaced thousands.

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